Amplify Author Spotlight: Val Ries

(Posted on Monday, April 10, 2023)

We are excited to feature Val Ries, author of Chief Inspiration Officer, as this month’s Amplify Author Spotlight!

Founder of Executive Muse (an executive coaching & management training company), Val helps leaders become the boss everyone wants to work for.

Starting her career as a registered nurse, Val transitioned to medical sales where she was quickly “thrown” into management. After earning her MBA and coaching certification, Val began to learn what it takes to intrinsically motivate others and ensure they actually want to come to work.

Through Val’s work with Executive Muse she coaches and trains high-impact leaders, at startups, Fortune 500 companies and small businesses. Her goal is to help them accomplish their vision of building powerful micro-cultures—and becoming a leader who increases productivity, decreases attrition and elevates employee engagement.

Val resides in the Bay area with her kids, husband and dog.

Learn more about Val’s publishing journey, her advice to authors, and the parallels she draws between leadership, writing, and dance below!

What advice would you offer to someone that’s currently working on a book?

I would advise you to not worry about getting your ideas perfectly organized when writing a book. Instead, just get them out. To organize my own thoughts, I start by creating a mind map on a poster board with the main theme in the middle and connecting bubbles for related ideas. This process helps me see where I can take the book and what different chapters might look like. From there, I just start writing and getting everything out, knowing that it’s better to have something to edit than nothing at all. So don’t be afraid to get your ideas down on paper, even if they don’t end up in the final product.

What most surprised you about the writing process?

In my experience, what surprised me the most about writing was how long it took. With the help of a writing coach, it took me 18 months to fully articulate what I wanted to say and start collecting stories and evidence to support my ideas. I was surprised by how difficult it was for me to be vulnerable at first and share my personal stories, despite the fact that people often connect with them. Initially, I held back on the vulnerability more than I should have. However, I learned that it’s important to just tell your story and share the story within the story.

When you originally set out to publish Chief Inspiration Officer, what was your goal?

I wrote Chief Inspiration Officer because I wanted to share my frustrations, failures, and the things I learned about being an effective leader. My goal was to get these nuggets out into the world so that others wouldn’t have to struggle through the same challenges I did when I was suddenly thrown into a management position. I wanted to alleviate this burden and help leaders create a healthy work environment. I care deeply about the employee experience and I know how burnout and dissatisfaction can affect both the leader’s morale and health, as well as the overall happiness of the company. By getting my message out there and teaching these techniques, I hoped to help the leader, the employee, and ultimately the company – a triple win.

Did Chief Inspiration Officer lead you to any unexpected opportunities?

In my experience, I initially worked with corporate companies that were looking for well-defined leadership training programs. However, I was surprised to find that I was also attracting small businesses that didn’t have an internal Learning and Development or HR team. Many of these were startups in between growth phases. I found myself becoming a fractional leadership consultant for them, which was something I hadn’t considered before. I enjoyed working with these leaders who were growing at a fast pace but didn’t have the infrastructure or internal resources to help them put systems in place for management and training development.

I also had the opportunity to meet coaches who were being approached by corporations looking for formal leadership training programs. They learned about my methods and ended up licensing the program through me, which was a pleasant surprise. Now, I’m considering how to scale this part of the business and expand my reach even further.

What is something people may not know about you?

I consider myself an artist in my second life. As I went on this journey of writing and building a business, I found myself getting more excited about the creative process and the behind-the-scenes work, such as designing the book cover. I was determined to find the perfect cover that spoke to my soul and truly represented my work. It took me working with what seemed like five hundred different designers until I found the right one.

Moreover, I’ve noticed that my passion for dancing keeps resurfacing in my life. I feel a sense of excitement and a release of creativity when I hear music and start to move. It’s interesting to see the parallels between leadership, my writing and my passion for dancing. They involve unleashing creativity in myself and my team, being in a state of flow, having fun, and being vulnerable with others.

What are you currently reading or what books do you most often recommend to others?

Well, mine of course; just kidding! I read a lot of fiction books because they provide a much-needed escape from the world of business and culture that I deal with on a daily basis. However, my go-to books for business-related topics are by Daniel Pink. He does a fantastic job discussing culture and his book, Drive, is a favorite of mine. Recently, I picked up a book called, Managing Narcissists, Blamers, Dramatics and More…, by Mark Murphy. It’s important for leaders to know how to manage those who bring down the energy of the team and not let them affect the entire group. I also like Brene Brown, Simon Sinek, and Adam Grant, among others, anyone who is inspiring us to be better.

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Amplify Author Spotlight: Kate Purmal

(Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2023)

We are thrilled to feature Kate Purmal, a distinguished author and business leader with a wealth of experience in executive coaching, business advising, and board governance, in this month’s Amplify Author Spotlight. Kate is a Senior Fellow at Georgetown University and a Board Director at ABD Insurance and Financial Services. Throughout her career, she has been an unwavering advocate for diversity and gender equity in the C-suite. Kate’s impressive professional journey began with her role as a member of Palm Inc.’s founding management team and later as a Senior Vice President at SanDisk. Her extensive experience as a CEO and COO for various start-ups and privately held companies has cemented her position as a leader in the industry. We are excited for you to become acquainted with Kate and gain insights into her personal journey in book publishing and her accomplishments with the release of “Composure”.

What advice would you offer to somebody currently working on a book?

Kate: I would suggest focusing on three areas. First, the content itself is crucial. I think having a great developmental editor who can really capture your voice and work in sync with you in terms of getting the editing done is important. When I was working on my book, Composure, I was fortunate to have someone who could connect the threads of my writing and provide me with elevated feedback that made the book sing.

Secondly, there are a lot of logistics involved in the production component, which is something that I didn’t want to focus on or spend my energy on. It’s not something I’m very skilled at either. So, I found it helpful to have a strong partner who could help with multiple steps such as proofreading, layout, cover design, print readiness, etc. Working with a hybrid publisher gave me more control over the editing, editorial review, and cover design, which was important to me. Also, having control over the time-to-market was crucial since I wanted to get the book out quickly. From the time I completed the manuscript to the book’s printing, it only took about eight or nine months, which is fast.

Thirdly, marketing and promotion can be the hardest part of the process. Finding the right partners and experts to work with on that is essential.

What most surprised you about the process?

Kate: I was surprised by how difficult it was to keep my book in the top ten of a given category and how important reviews are for search rankings. As an author, I had to learn that it’s all about rankings. When people search for your book or the topic of your book, whether or not it shows up on the first page or fifth page of the rankings on Amazon determines whether your book gets purchased or not.

Did Composure lead you to any unexpected opportunities?

Kate: Yes, Composure led me to several unexpected opportunities. We launched the book during the COVID-19 pandemic and noticed that people were too exhausted to read professional development books, especially in hardcover and Kindle format. So, I published my own audiobook the middle of last year and put each chapter on my website as a podcast, which I made available for free. People could listen to the chapters sequentially and then buy the audiobook if they liked it. I noticed a pickup in sales, and the book sold around nine thousand copies in just over a year. The momentum came from people getting the book in their hands and reading it. As a result, I received several inbound opportunities for speaking, executive coaching, and doing internal corporate programs and workshops.

When you originally set out to publish, what was your goal?

Kate: My primary goal with Composure was to elevate women and other traditionally underrepresented groups in the C-suite to elevate their executive presence and make them more effective and promotable. I am passionate about this cause, and I knew I needed to write a book because it seemed like the most obvious way to broaden my reach. I decided to be very generous with giving away my work because I had a dual intention of getting my work out there in the world and helping people utilize it to impact their lives positively and profoundly. I also aimed to promote and serve my own business by making the book as broadly available as possible. I am still a huge believer that if you’re doing a book because you want to improve people’s lives, then open-sourcing or generously giving content is a positive approach that will pay off in unexpected ways.

What’s something people may not know about you?

Kate: Something that people may not know about me is that I got married five years ago to a yacht captain. I’ve become a sailor as a result and have joined him on trips up and down the west coast from Alaska to Mexico to Hawaii. In addition to sailing, I love mountain biking, and I’ve taken on these two new hobbies that I never thought I would enjoy.

What are you currently reading and what book do you most often recommend to others?

Kate: I am somebody who read ten books at a time and I read a lot of nonfiction right now. One of my favorite books is Business Brilliant, which delves into what distinguishes people who have made tens of millions of dollars from the rest of us. The book offers fascinating insights, and one example is that they network two or three levels above themselves, which is something I never thought of as a play to put yourself in a completely different financial round.

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Learn more about Composure: The Art of Executive Presence: https://www.composurethebook.com/composure-book-the-art-of-executive-presence

Connect with Kate on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-purmal-922133/

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